"The Depths of a Clam: Modern Korean Poetry from So Chong-ju to Kim Kwang-kyu"
| DATE: | Friday, April 21, 2006 |
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| TIME: | 4:15 PM to 6:00 PM |
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| PLACE: | IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton Street, 6th Floor |
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| FORMAT: | Colloquium |
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| SPONSORS: | Center for Korean Studies |
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1. Presentation by Brother Anthony: “Voices Translated: Modern Korean Poetry from So Chong-ju to Kim Kwang-kyu.”
Within the following narrative, I would read portions of work by a variety of poets. Modern Korean poetry begins with a strong inclination to the intensely lyrical, whether that is rooted in traditional forms, both native and Chinese, as is the case with Kim So-Wol, or in the European symbolism and imagism introduced by Japanese translations of the works of French Symbolists and Modernists. This current was leavened and undermined during the Japanese period by calls for a socially relevant literature, and by the desire to introduce subtexts indicating Korean nationalist resistance. After Liberation, with the triumphant return of the Korean language, the intensely lyrical poems of So Chong-Ju and other poets of the art-for-art’s-sake trend came to dominate South Korean poetry in the period before and immediately after the Korean War. Given the identification of socially relevant literature with the Communist cause, there was little variety of models available to Southern writers and the first generation of poets who began to write after the War can for the most part be characterized as aestheticizing lyricists. This includes the early work of Ko Un, despite his later reputation as an ‘engaged poet’. Renewal began with the new social challenge represented by the failure of the hopes for a more democratic society after the tragic sacrifice of young lives during the April Revolution, completed by the military coup of the following year; this coincides with the implementation of a policy of intense modernization by urbanization and industrialization. Two different voices emerge in the renewal of lyric poetry at this time, with the intellectual, theoretical voice of the Modernist Kim Su-Yong calling for the use of ‘ordinary language’ in poetry and the committed, practical voice of Shin Kyong-Nim speaking out from the laboring classes, previously not thought to have any poetry to offer, using a plural “We” as speaker and finding the poetic within the arid and desolate realities of the laboring classes. The increasing polarization of Korean literary circles, partly rooted in writers’ differing responses to the protests of the 1970s, led to an idea of there being 2 ‘schools,’ one putting the main stress on abstract values of aesthetic beauty and the portrayal of human dignity, the other demanding democracy and a literature related to the real life of ordinary people. It is notorious that certain writers of the first group enjoyed favor with the Park Chung-hee regime while many of the second were constantly being arrested, or, like Kim Ji-Ha, spent years in prison. But the generation of writers growing up in the Park Jung-Hee years tended to see the need for a combination of the values of both ‘schools,’ seeing no value in a poetry devoid of beauty, or utterly divorced from reality. Kim Kwang-Kyu, Mah Chonggi and Hwang Dong-Kyu each in their own way indicate this. The case of Kim Kwang-Kyu is particularly interesting because he developed his poetic voice by translating German poetry, before beginning to write his own poems in Korean. Owing virtually nothing to previous Korean poetic models, his work enjoyed immediate popularity as a model for a new poetics for the new age that began in fact with the assassination of Park Chung-Hee and grew to maturity during the residual dictatorships of the 1980s. For the first time, a satirical humor was able to speak out, pointing its dart at the follies of everyday life in the modern city.
2. Readings of Kim Kwang-Kyu’s poetry: Korean poems read by the Poet, English translations read by Zack Rogow
3. Comments, questions and dialogue with Poet and Translators, including Chong Heyong who has translated Kim Kwang-Kyu’s work into German.
Kim Kwang-Kyu, born in 1941, is one of Korea’s most famous poets. He has published 8 volumes of poetry. His delicate satires sustained people during the dark years of dictatorship, while his ironic commentaries on the dehumanizing effects of modern city life have influenced many younger Korean writers. He recently retired from his position as professor of German literature at Hanyang University, Seoul.
Brother Anthony, born 1942 in England, belongs to the Community of Taizé (France). He has lived in Korea since 1980 and is professor of medieval English at Sogang University, Seoul. He has published some 20 volumes of translations of Korean poetry and fiction, including “The Depths of a Clam: Poems by Kim Kwang-Kyu” (White Pine Press, 2005)
Chong Heyong is Kim Kwang-Kyu’s German translator. She is professor in the German department of Hanyang University, Seoul.
Zack Rogow is a poet and translator. For many years he organized the popular Lunch Poems Readings at UC Berkeley. He is now editor and artistic director of Two Lines (the Center for the Art of Translation).
